It's the Year of the Ox (牛 níu = cow; ox in the Chinese zodiac).
Since I'm still in Egypt, I thought these Egyptian representations of oxen would be an appropriate way to recognize the new year:
In Ancient Egypt, the ox basically served 3 separate functions:
1. They were used for their strength as agricultural draught animals.
2. For food purposes, they were kept for milk and slaughtered for meat.
3. Finally, there was a spiritual side, most notably represented by the Apis Bull. I don't fully understand the mythology behind it, so I'll leave the explanation to the collective wisdom of Wikipedia.
The Apis Bull, an incarnation of the god Ptah:
The ox as draught animal in Egypt:
And so that we don't stray too far from the Lunar New Year, here's a traditional Chinese representation of the ox:
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